Baghdad

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT BAGHDAD - PAGE 3

BAGHDAD: The US army took over the post-war civil arrangement of Iraq from the Marines on Saturday, inheriting a daunting task plagued by confusion and public animosity towards the US occupation. By first light, the heavy Marine presence had completely vanished from Baghdad's streets and was replaced by small numbers of soldiers from the army's third infantry division (3ID) deployed at street corners. Elements of the fourth infantry division (4ID) had also moved into the capital while the 101st airborne remained at the international airport.

BAGHDAD: Explosions thudded around the edges of Baghdad at first light on Sunday, after a night of attacks on the Iraqi capital and nearby areas where Republican Guard defenders are based. Earlier on Sunday four deafening explosions shook central Baghdad, as one of the fiercest US-led air assaults of the war stretched into a second day. "There were four very loud explosions, one after another, and this time they aren't far away, it seems they're around the centre," Reuters correspondent Hassan Hafidh said.

WASHINGTON: Al-Qaeda splinter group the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS), which has carved out a large fiefdom along the Iraqi-Syrian border, poses a "legitimate threat" to the capital city of Baghdad, a top Pentagon official has said. "We certainly have enough visibility to see that they continue to press into central and southern Iraq... And they're still a legitimate threat to Baghdad," Pentagon Press Secretary Rear Admiral John Kirby told reporters yesterday.

Historically, Iran and Iraq have had their differences. But both nations are united in rapture over the love songs of Lionel Richie , to the astonishment of the soul legend. Over the past decade, the Hello singer has become a phenomenon across the Arab world. Iraqis blasted out All Night Long on the night in 2003 when US tanks invaded Baghdad. Iraqis who speak no English can still sing the entire Richie songbook. In the Kurdistan city of Erbil, authors read their poetry to interpretations of songs by Richie at a literary festival held this year, designed to bring Arabic, Kurdish and British writers together.

STOCKHOLM: World leaders attending a conference on Iraq unanimously approved a declaration Thursday acknowledging Baghdad's efforts to improve security and "combat violence and terrorism" in the war-torn country.

BAGHDAD: At least five people were killed and eight wounded on Saturday in a bomb explosion in Iraq's northern city of Kirkuk, the police said. The blast occurred in a car market. It was not immediately known whether the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber, an official said. Kirkuk city, some 250 km north of Baghdad, is an important industrial hub. No further details were immediately available.

BAGHDAD: Islamic State suicide bombers and fighters attacked the centre of Iraq's northern oil refinery town of Baiji overnight, forcing the army and Shi'ite fighters to pull back, military sources and the local mayor said on Sunday. The town of Baiji and its refinery - Iraq's largest - have been a battlefront for more than a year. The hardline Islamists seized the town in June 2014 as they swept through much of northern Iraq towards the capital Baghdad. Control of Baiji neighbourhoods has changed hands many times during the conflict.

BAGHDAD: The American authorities are set to return more than 1,000 priceless Iraqi artefacts smuggled out of the country after the US-led invasion five years ago, the Iraqi government said on Monday. Tourism and Antiquities Minister Qahtan Abbas said in a statement the antiquities will be handed over to Iraq's embassy in Washington, without giving details of the artefacts or when they would be returned. With the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in April 2003 following the US invasion, there was massive looting of Baghdad's antiquities museum and countless historical sites around the country.

BAGHDAD: Iraq's Health Minister Umid Medhat Mubarak said on Thursday that at least 36 people were killed and 215 injured in the Wednesday's air strikes on Baghdad. Addressing a press conference on Thursday he said there were till now 36 martyrs in Wednesday's strike. But the actual figures might be higher, he added. In the deadliest single incident, 14 civilians were killed and around 30 wounded as two missiles fell in a working-class market district of northern Baghdad, according to the Iraqi civil defence.